Thursday, March 10, 2005

Mitumba

Mitumba, or second-hand clothes, may not seem specifically a squatter issue. But all across Africa, the poor survive wearing western cast-offs. Most of my friends in Kibera bought second-hand stuff because the price was right. And some had businesses retailing the cast-offs in local markets. They would buy bales of used clothing downtown at the massive Gikomba market and, with a tiny mark-up, make a profit re-selling in Kibera. This article from the East African Standard shows that the government has raised the per-kilo tax on mitumba -- a move that is causing some wholesale prices to spike upwards 50 percent.

While it may be true, as a merchant tells the Standard, that the government's policy is counterproductive, and is "rendering millions of self-employed people jobless," the issue is complex. Kenya had a reasonably thriving needle trade until deeply discounted mitumba blanketed the country and priced most of the local manufacturers out of business. It would be hard to argue with the tariffs if the government was seriously attempting to rebuild this shattered industry instead of simply siphoning off money from a lousy economy. But that's a big if.

And there's another issue here: It's likely that the bulk of mitumba items being sold around Africa were donated by Americans and Europeans who thought they were making charitable contributions to the poor rather than stoking a profitable industry. Which means that there are most likely brokers in the U.S. and Europe making money on this trade too. That's a real scandal.

5 comments:

This is totally off-topic, but in the middle of February the military in Goiania Brazil took violent action against squatters according to http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/02/112999.shtml:

"The occupation started in may 2004 in an area which has been abandoned for years and quickly gathered 3,000 families. In January, Justice ordered the eviction of the families and since then police have been terrifying the families with death threats and sudden attacks. In February 11, police showed up suddenly and shot gas and concussion bombs and fired rubber bullets against the people. One child got hit by a concussion bomb. On February 15, in another attack, police shot bombs and fired with guns. Two people got hurt. After pressure from social movements and human rights groups, state of Goiás Governor Marconi Perillo committed himself not to send police to evict people in a violent way (you can hear his commitment in this recorded audio. Today's attack and the so far confirmed death of two people showed he did not stick to his words."

The website Indiemedia is calling for International support in brazil regarding these actions, and apparently the governer of the state is standing up for squatter rights.

I go to the University of Texas at Austin. As an international business student, I a writing a paper on the secondhand clothing market in Africa. Can you tell me more about what countries actively import secondhand clothing, and what distributor markets there are for secondhand clothing.

If I get enough information about the distributor centers for secondhand clothing, my professor will pay for a trip for me to go to Africa with a student in Documentary Filming so that I can tape a documentary about this.

Any contacts you have of sellers of mitumba would be appreciated as well.

Let's work together to inform people about this market. We need to help others. Mitumba market employs thousands of people, provides discounted and affordable clothing, but impacts the linen and textile manufacturing companies of Africa.

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About Me

I spent most of the past four years hanging out with street hawkers, smugglers, and sub-rosa import/export firms to write Stealth of Nations, a book that chronicles the global growth of System D--the parallel economic arena that today accounts for half the jobs on the planet.
Prior to that, I lived in squatter communities across four continents to write Shadow Cities, a book that attempts to humanize these vibrant, energetic, and horribly misunderstood communities.
My articles on cities, politics, and economic issues have appeared in many publications, including Harper's, Scientific American, Forbes, Fortune, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Metropolis, and City Limits. Before becoming a reporter, I worked as a community organizer and studied philosophy. I live in New York City and do most of my writing on manual typewriters.